Quote:
Originally Posted by DrPhil
Or...
Keeping the money in your bank account for necessities or less expensive luxury items (DSW (AlphaFrog  ) and TJMaxx are great) = smart
Investing the money so you can accumulate more wealth and not rely on income = smart
It's amazing that this stuff needs to be said. I guess there is a lot of irony in Black Friday. |
Indeed. I'm somewhere between working class and lower middle class, but I still don't live paycheck to paycheck. My focus on giving comes out of my experience that I think I need more than I really do. I have no doubt that God will provide everything I need (while I may not always live at the same level of luxury) and that generosity goes hand in hand with accumulating wealth. Charity and tithing to the church is a large part of my worldview. I don't personally believe in wealth-building separate from giving.
When my husband and I sold some property in North Carolina, we gave 10% tithe plus offerings, which represented well over $10,000, to charity. I haven't missed the money at all. In fact, it's essentially been replaced. The same scenario keeps playing out with each decision we make. (<--My blatant encouragement to everyone to start/keep thinking about charity as a duty.)
ETA: Do people actually understand what we mean when we say "stop living paycheck to paycheck"? It seems that if that's all you know, you won't know how to do things differently. I'm sure it's a little different for everyone. For me, it's calculating expenses on an annual basis and saving the necessary amount out of each paycheck to pay for the expense when the time comes. The money that I save over time makes money for me through interest until I have to spend it. I also have pure savings that is not attached to a future expense. And I have investments and real estate that I've been blessed to inherit. I realize that is not something to be taken for granted.